Lost In The Wilderness
by YuePantera
Summary: A young daughter of two Thalmor agents gets lost one night and meets a Skooma-high Wood Elf and an old, grumpy Dark Elf. See what happens. All OCs and made for fun. Rated T for safety.


**A/N**: _Right, warning first of all, this is not a serious thing, it was made just for fun! Obviously, there are mistakes but it's just something that seemed fun to write! A MASSIVE thank you to Nalledia for helping me with this, with the idea for the whole thing and pushing me to write it! XD. We had this idea for me to write months ago, but I've been so busy and urg! Time got away. So here we are, Nalledia, my friend! (Check out her stuff, she's amazing! Seriously!) Thanks for helping me with the first little fic on this account haha!_

Tareneen, an Altmer daughter of two Thalmor agents, pushed the annoying branches out of her way, muttering to herself as another thorn cut her skin and shedding a drop of blood. She stopped for a minute, wiping the blood away and sighing. She had wanted to escape from the other High Elves, annoyed by their wildness and stupidity back at the party, so she decided to take a little walk. Now, she didn't know where she was and she had to get back before they got worried. After all, it was her mother's party that was being thrown.

"Nice one, Tar, just had to go and get yourself lost our here, didn't you?" she muttered to herself. She often did have bad direction sense – she still got lost in her own home – but she thought she had gotten better.

There came a small shuffle from something further on, a snap of a twig and a chuckle that sent shivers up her spine.

"Hello?" she called, stepping towards the sound hesitantly. She strained her eyes to see through the dark, desperate to see something that the sounds might have been connected to, but she saw nothing. "Hello?"

A low chuckle came again, much closer this time.

She clutched onto a nearby tree, eager to show the courage that she was sure she had. But her heart threatened to beat out of her chest and her hands trembled as her fingers dug into the deep bark of the tree.

"D-Did you know… if you carry on holdin' onto that tree like that… your fingers might just get stuck," came a voice, slightly amused, slightly slurred.

She spun around, detaching her hands from the tree and pushing her back against it instead. But the sight that greeted her was not a threatening sight, not at all. A male Wood Elf stood before her, dressed in old and dirty clothes. A cheeky smile rested on his lips, and his clouded eyes seemed to roll about the place. In his right hand, he held a small bottle. As he saw her glance at it, he took a swig and chuckled at Tareneen again.

"Who are you?" she asked carefully.

He looked over his shoulder, then back at her with narrowed and confused eyes. But they widened suddenly, as if a huge secret was suddenly released to him. He pointed at his chest. "Me?"

"Yes…" Who else was there? she wondered.

"Nice to meet you too!" he cried out cheerfully, taking another swig of the bottle. "Want some?" he offered, holding it out.

"No," she replied, shaking her head, she asked, "What are you doing here?" Inside, she felt the small hope that maybe, just maybe, he could be her way out of here. He couldn't possibly be lost too, could he?

He simply shrugged his shoulders. "Dunno. Was at the pub. Now here." He glanced around, a small smile still lingering on his face. "Pretty cool though."

Tareneen shook her head and rested it in her hands, sighing. So he really was lost too. Are we ever going to get out of here? she thought.

"Hey, hey, hey," the Wood Elf suddenly shouted in a random outburst, pointing wildly behind Tareneen. "Hey… I think… I think I've found your papa!"

She suddenly looked up at him, her face twisted in complete confusion as she spun around. "My father?" she whispered, unbelieving. Suddenly, it hit her. Of course, she thought. Looking down at the bottle he held, she understood now. "That's Skooma, isn't it?" She had heard of it, but never had any herself. Tareneen had heard of the stories of those who had gotten addicted to it, and she did not want to turn out like that.

"But your papa…"

"My father isn't here, mister. He's back at the party."

He suddenly held up his arms. "A party, eh? Let's go!"

"What? Uh, no…"

He grabbed her arm and began to drag her deeper into the trees. Even at her constant attempts to release his grip on her arm, and her feeble protests, his stubborn persistence was unrelenting, and in the end, she gave up. After a few minutes, they made it to a small clearing that was illuminated by the light of the moon that hung high above in the sky.

As Tareneen looked around, a small smile pulled at her lips as she took in the beauty, something that she often had to go without when having to entertain the guests at the parties her parents always threw.

"Here's your papa!"

Tareneen looked down and saw someone else. An old male Dark Elf sat with his back against a large tree, his walking stick resting beside him. His head hung and his back hunched, and he watched her through hard and cold, red eyes. She flinched at that gaze.

"That's definitely not my father…" she muttered to herself.

"Between you and me," the Wood elf whispered conspiratorially, leaning in close to her, "I think he might be high."

She rolled her eyes and made her way over to the Dark Elf. "Um, hello," she greeted nervously. "I'm Tareneen. Who are you?"

He watched her suspiciously through narrowed eyes, but he gave a curt nod and grumbled a reply, "Llaalam Othralen."

Happy to have finally found someone who could answer properly, she glanced quickly at the Wood Elf, who was chuckling to himself, facing a tree as if they were together in conversation. "Who is he?"

Llaalam shrugged. "Hm."

"How did you get here? Are you lost too?"

He rolled his eyes at all the questions that were being thrown at him. Even out here, in the wilderness where he had expected to come across no one, he had met a Skooma-high Wood Elf and a young Thalmor woman who would not shut up. It seemed that life wanted to watch him squirm. "No."

Tareneen waited a little, expecting more of an answer, but nothing more came. Determined to have conversation, she sat next to him, curling her knees to her chest and rested her chin. "The stars are beautiful, aren't they?"

"Hm."

"I never really get to see the stars, not at home," she whispered, worried her voice might disturb the sweet silence of the clearing. "I'm always kept busy, and my parents think it's a stupid thing to spent time on."

"Hm."

Not at all deterred by the lack of answer, she gave a gleaming smile as she watched the sky. Being lost now, she didn't see it as being a worry anymore. She finally had time to look up at what she had always been interested in since an early age, without having to be dragged away by her parents. "If you're not lost, why are you here?"

Llaalam gave a long pause, wondering whether he should bother giving an answer, before saying, "To get away from annoying people."

She giggled. "Same as me. Do you often come here then, to get away from people?"

He nodded. "Hmm…"

The Wood Elf suddenly erupted into laughter, causing Tareneen to flinch and Llaalam to chuckle briefly at her reaction. The Wood Elf slapped the tree, then sat back and watched her and the old Dark Elf.

"Did you hear that?" He slapped the tree and doubled over in a bellow of laughter.

Tareneen's and Llaalam's eyes rolled.

"If we tried to leave, he'd just follow us, wouldn't he?" she sighed. Her new companion just nodded with a slight smirk. "Do you know the way out, then?"

He nodded. "Yes." He slowly started to warm to her, finding her far less annoying than the childish Wood Elf that needed something as poisonous as Skooma to live life. To her, he must have been seen just as a grumpy, grouchy old Dark Elf, one that was not much company. Ah, the young, he thought. Must be nice to be young and unknowing of real life. He himself had served many battles, as was shown in the scars that he covered up. He knew things that the young would soon have to face. He knew the harsh nature of the world, the betrayals, the torment that life brought to individuals. He may have been grumpy and grouchy, but he once was a lively young man. It seemed that bad mood was brought with the age, and hardships.

"Then you can get us out of here," she smiled. "I do need to go back to my parents soon."

"I can't."

At those two words, Tareneen froze. "But you said you know the way out."

"Yes."

"Then why will you not show us?" At each word, her voice grew in volume. Her parents would begin to miss her now.

"Because I am enjoying it here," he mumbled, leaning his head back and closing his eyes. "Leave me at peace, speak no more and let me sleep. I will show you the way out in the morning."

Tareneen rose up, her hands clenched at her sides. "But I need to go back!"

"Do you have another choice?"

Taking a deep breath, she shook her head. Llaalam closed his eyes, and after only a minute, his light breathing became slow and quiet snores of sleep. Tareneen shook her head and decided that the Wood Elf could be good company after all.

"So what is your name?" she tried to coax out of him again.

He gazed at her with a frown. "Tareneen."

"No, your name is what I want to know, not mine." With each passing moment, being around these two men seemed to be taking a toll on her. Exhaustion began to set in and she rubbed the bridge of her nose.

"Oh! Bragor," he finally said. He placed a palm on the tree. "And this 'ere is my friend. He won't tell me his name. Kind of shy." He began to laugh again. As he chuckled, he rested his back on the tree and slowly slid down the bark until he sat on the ground. Immediately, he slumbered off to sleep.

Outraged that both men had left her alone in a wilderness that she was not familiar with, she threw up her hands and cried out, "I want to get home!"

"Calm down and sleep," Llaalam replied sharply, sleep making his voice a little husky, cracking open one eye to gaze at her. "Nothing will harm you here. I guarantee you the best sleep you have ever had here, therefore the reason I often sleep out in this clearing."

"But my parents will worry –"

"You are but a child," he cut in. "Your house is not far, you have surely travelled a short distance. If your parents come, they will not come across difficulty finding this place. Now rest and wait for them to come."

She wondered how he knew, but she did not voice her question. The intelligence in his grumpy voice seemed to make her obey. She rested on a tree, slowly sliding down as Bragor had done. It took her awhile to fall asleep, but she felt her eyes droop.

* * *

Upon opening her eyes, Tareneen found herself back in her own bed, in her own room. As she clutched the blankets in her small hands, she gave a small smile, remembering what Llaalam had said. She missed him, and, as she suddenly realised too, she even missed Bragor. The two men she had met one night after getting lost would never leave her mind. Maybe fate would let her meet them again, and maybe next time Bragor would be off the Skooma so she could hold a proper conversation with him.

* * *

Bragor rested back on a stool in the bar he had been before he had wandered away. He vaguely remembered trees, a lot of them, and two other people, but their faces were blurry to him. He also barely remembered being dragged back to the bar by a Thalmor who had come looking for someone. He scanned the bar and glanced down at the Skooma bottle in his hand. With a smirk on one side of his mouth, he shrugged and wondered what had happened last night. Another crazy experience to add to the file of memories, perhaps?

* * *

Once the Thalmor had taken the other two away, Llaalam pushed himself up onto his legs with the help of his walking stick. He had been too proud to accept the help he had been offered by those who had come looking for Tareneen, and he had wanted to stay a little while longer in the wilderness that his life had come to revolve around. He had been born here, retreated here as a child, met his best friend and wife here, and now came here each night to look up at the stars that had watched over him in life. With one last glance back at the clearing, wishing the two young ones well, he skulked into the trees, giving his goodbyes to the trees, but only until the night came, when he would come back again.


End file.
